Most Americans are aware the goal of Islamic jihad is the destruction of the West, especially the United States which is termed the “Great Satan” by jihadi organizations. ISIS continues to capture headlines and is well known among the American public. However, less well known, but of great importance, is the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). In fact, both ISIS and al-Qaeda trace their roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood. Fortunately, Eric Stakelbeck has written a book, The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy. While promoting his book, Stakelbeck revealed in an interview with Glenn Beck that without the MB 9/11 could not have happened. He exposes and alerts Americans to the dark, wicked presence of the Muslim Brotherhood and the tentacles it has spread throughout our country. So thoroughly has this been accomplished that there are Brotherhood supporters within the Obama Administration.

Lamenting the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, a devout Egyptian school teacher, Hassan al-Banna, heavily influenced by the Wahabbi Islam of Saudi Arabia, founded the Brotherhood in 1928. The Ikhwan, or the Society of the Muslim Brothers, was, and still is, another term for the Brotherhood. With its slogan: “Islam is the answer,” the MB grew rapidly and just two decades later had over 2 million members becoming a potent force in Egypt.

Today, the Brotherhood is a global force that has spread to every continent except Antarctica and claims over 100 million adherents. They are mostly fanatical supporters of the Brotherhood’s agenda, which is radical and still guided by their original slogan. Their interpretation of this slogan, in spite of their lying defenders, is not the answer of the apologists who insist Islam is a religion of peace.

The Muslim Brotherhood spawned Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Islamic party in once secular Turkey. The so-called “Arab Spring” had its roots in the Brotherhood’s many tentacles where protests, violence and chaos became the coin of the realm in the Middle East and North Africa. The Saudis have contributed vast sums of money to the Brotherhood in the past, but the uprisings of the period caused a quick change in attitude and the Brotherhood was banned by the Kingdom.

The Brotherhood is very deceptive in spreading its influence. In Muslim countries their clerics are constantly preaching the message of violent jihad, wiping Israel off the face of the earth – a message one normally associates with the various jihadi groups plotting and conducting acts of terror in the name of Allah.

However, in non-Muslim lands, especially in the West, they stoop to subterfuge and disguise their message in honey-tongued dialogue delivered in impeccable language of the country they are working in. This smooth talking manner is evidence of the Brotherhood’s dual track approach to power – on the one hand they use political organization to spread their message. Operating from mosques and charitable organizations they organize political support for Brotherhood objectives. An example in the U.S. was the Holy Land Foundation, which was a proven front to advance the cause of Hamas the violent anti-Israeli Palestinian terrorist organization. In a 1983 conference of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Philadelphia, Shurki Abu Baker, a high Holy Land Foundation official, admitted the group was a front. “Let’s not hoist a large Islamic flag and let’s not be barbaric talking. . . We will remain a front so that if the thing happens, we will benefit from the new happenings instead of having all our organizations classified and exposed.”

Out of this meeting also evolved another Brotherhood front, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR, whose offices are on Capitol Hill in Washington DC just a few short blocks from the House of Representative’s office buildings, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial. and convicted of raising funds for Hamas. Top Holy Land Foundation officials were convicted of using the “charity” to raise millions of dollars for Hamas, a State Department listed terrorist organization.

CAIR, on the other hand, escaped being brought before the bar of justice, and still operates out of its offices on Capitol Hill. They have had ready access to the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. Many undercover Brotherhood activists have had high level jobs under Obama. Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest advisors, has Brotherhood connections through her family. If Hillary gets elected president, the Brotherhood will have an asset at the right hand of the President of the United States. If that isn’t a scary proposition, I don’t know what is.

Remember, Obama can’t bring himself to join the words “Islamic” to terrorism. No wonder the Brotherhood likes Obama and he likes them.

In Egypt, the Brotherhood demonstrated their political clout by the election of Mohammad Morsi in 2012. Just before his victory in May Morsi proclaimed, in his now infamous Sharia speech, the preeminence of Islamic law. Citing the MB’s founder, Hassan al-Banna, he said:

“The constitution is our Koran.” They wanted to show that the constitution is a great thing. But Imam al-Banna, Allah’s mercy upon him, said to them: “No, the Koran is our constitution.” The Koran was and will continue to be our constitution. The Koran will continue to be our constitution! The Koran is our constitution!

Once in office, Morsi doubled down on imposing the Brotherhood’s agenda, including imposing Sharia law on all of Egypt. Unfortunately for Morsi, imposing the agenda and its accompanying Sharia law, resulted in chaos. Things got so bad that on July 3, 2013, the Egyptian army staged a coup and removed Morsi from power. This act didn’t sit too well with the Obama Administration, which termed the coup an attack on democracy. (Only a lunatic could compare Sharia law with democracy.) The Egyptian army remains in power and Morsi, under a death sentence, languishes in prison.

With their banning in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood may seem in decline, but given their history, it would be foolish to consider them finished. They are embedded deeply in Muslim societies throughout the world, which promises trouble in years to come.

Stakelbeck’s 2013 book is even more relevant today and details the workings of the Brotherhood facilitated through the Obama Administration. The author convincingly shows the danger posed to the U.S. by the MB. His book should be read by all Americans who see the threat of Islamic terrorism growing in the United States and the role played in it by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Morgan Norval is the founder and Executive Director of the Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research and a contributor to SFPPR News & Analysis.